Offshore Wind Journal

Croatian yard completes offshore installer

9 August 2018 saw Uljanik Shipyard in Croatia deliver its latest newbuild, Apollo, a jack-up vessel that GeoSea will use for a range of projects, including installing offshore wind turbines.

The first self-propelled jack-up built at Uljanik, Apollo has four 106.8m jack-up legs that allow it to work in water depths of 70m.

The new unit is a GustoMSC NG-5500X design and is 89.32m long with a breadth of 42m. It is able to reach a speed of in excess of 11 knots. It has accommodation for 90 people and is intended for a range of work including installation of offshore wind turbines. It can also be used as an offshore accommodation platform.

Information provided by GeoSea at the time that the vessel was ordered suggested that it would be fitted with an 800-tonne leg-encircling crane. The vessel has a free deck area of 2,000 mē with a loading capacity of 15 tonnes/mē.

It was also indicated that the vessel would be prepared to use the Boom Lock system, which is mounted on an offshore crane to control the movement of the crane hook and the payload in such a way that installation time can be reduced. This reduces installation costs and increases safety during the installation of the wind turbines by reducing movement of the load in challenging conditions.